Sound: Music

There are two aspects to sound in a media production that need to be considered and thats diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is everything that is within the scene such as footsteps, cars driving by, explosions and so on. Non-diegetic sound is music that accompanies the scene for added effect, and this is typically done in the form of music. Music can greatly impact the feel of the production at its given stage. For example if the production was a thriller the music would have to be quite suspenseful whilst if the production was a comedy the music would most likely be upbeat.

For my production, music is key to make the scenes feel more mysterious as this is the intended feel of the whole film. Therefore the music will be quite harmonious and not include a massive amount of instruments as if only one instrument is used it can help represent how alone the character is when time is frozen. The problem with using music is that the majority is copyrighted. Copyright protects the owner as it doesn't allow others to use their music without consent. This limits the amount of music available to me as mainstream music could only be used if I contacted either the record company or the artist themselves. As there was no specific music I wanted to use I decided to stick to using copyright free music which meant I could use it without going through the process of getting permission. After researching, I found the best site to use was 'Incompetech.com'. This site was full of genre specific royalty free music which meant I could use it as long as I acknowledged the artist (Kevin MacLeod) somewhere, which I plan on doing in the credits of the production. The music on this site could be filtered to fit moods such as suspenseful, uplifting, bouncy and many more. Therefore I filtered it with the moods suspenseful, mysterious and dark and it came up with a large list of music that could be used and I found a few tracks that will work well and I will then implement into my piece.

Here is the link to Kevin MacLeod's site, Incompetech: http://incompetech.com/

Sound: Foley sound

As my production is a short film, the sound is just as important as shots. One important aspect of sound is foley sound. Foley sound is the extra sound effects added after the production process and can be anything from footsteps to explosions. This is useful as it can sometimes be hard to capture the sounds that make the whole production believable. For my production, I have had to add a large amount of foley sound. The most important foley sound is the sound of the pendant being used. This sound consists of a quick whooshing sound whenever the pendant is activated. This is effective as it confirms to the audience that the pendant has been used. Another less noticeable but important foley sound is the footsteps added. The original footsteps had to be edited out as there were other sounds, such as the wind, ruining the overall sound. Other foley sounds included the ambience that was associated with the setting. For example when the character is in the forest there is a slight breeze and bird chirping every so often and when he is in the town you can hear all sorts of things such as cars driving past, babies crying and church bells ringing. This background sound gives the production a more believable aspect. Below is a snippet from the production in which all the sound that can be heard has been added using foley sound.

  

Editing techniques: Flash Transition

Within my production, a pendant is used to stop time and it was important to make sure this is obvious to the viewer. One way to do this is using the transition effectively between the shot where he twists the pendant and the shot afterwards where he is in frozen time. After researching various options such as fading to white I decided that the best transition would be a white flash that takes the viewer to the next shot. The reason I chose this was because it gives off the idea something important has happened. The only hindrance about this transition is that it wasn't a preset on the editing software I was using so instead I had to create it myself. To do this I combined two separate video effects to make up the flash effect which were 'Fast Blur' and 'Levels'. Fast blur blurs the image quickly whilst the levels allow the colours to be changed. To make the flash effect I increased both the amount of blur and the amount of white every few frames until the image was completely white. The finished transition only lasts a second however it works well to make it seem like there has been some sort of change. Below is both a screenshot of how the transition was made along with a snippet of the production showing the transition.

 

Editing techniques: Colour Grading

An often less represented part of editing is the colour correction. The colour correction and colour grading applied can often change the overall feel of a film. For example if a film was light hearted it would have an overall bright colour grade whilst if the film was quite dark and gritty it will have a quite saturated colour grade. It is important to implement this as it can greatly impact the overall feel whilst not necessarily being noticed by the viewer. In my production, the use of colour will be used effectively. One of the problems I had was making it clear when the character had frozen time and when he hadn't, and this is where colour grading came in. For the parts where the character hadn't frozen time I saturated the colours 50% so that there was an overall gloomy look. However, when the character had frozen time I increased the brightness and contrast slightly as well as increasing the amount of yellow in the shots. This gave an overall brighter and enhanced look, which was effective as the character would also feel enhanced due to the ability that is available to him whilst he's frozen time. Overall, this was effective as the contrast between the two colour grades was greater than if I left one without any colour correction. Below is a preview of when the character first uses the pendant and it shows well the difference in colour between the two states.    

Production progress

Recently I have finished the filming process of the production. Overall, the filming process was successful although slow at times. The first couple of sessions of filming were quite spread out and didn't work well in the terms of time management. However the third session and so on were done in quick and efficient succession meaning the shots would all work well within my production.


I am now moving onto putting all the focus on editing. I have been editing the main footage together roughly whilst I was filming however it was not done precisely and no effort was put towards the sound. The plan is to first edit the footage so that it is in the right order and at the appropriate length. After this, I will move onto adding the video effects such as a special transition when the pendant is used and implementing the colour corrections. Once this is done sound, whether it be diegetic or non-diegetic, will be the main focus. I will need to add foley sound to start off with, such as footsteps and ambience sounds and then move onto adding appropriate music to fit the feel of the production. However, it will probably not be that simple as I learnt from my AS piece. While editing my AS piece I came across problems that weren't necessarily there to begin with. One example would be sound being out of sync or lack of continuity which was noticed at the time. I feel that I have taken care of this not happening while filming and will keep this cautious attitude whilst editing to make sure there is no serious problems there either.

Another focus that needs to be considered is the evaluation questions which will evaluate my media piece and the ancillary texts that go with it, however I will go into more detail of these questions and how to answer them on a separate blog post.    

Last day of filming

The last session of filming was by far the biggest and longest session so far. In this session, we filmed both the part where the main character comes across the remains of the old man as well as the pendant and the final shots where the main character has been driven crazy by the pendant where he then became nothing but remains too.

The shots for the character finding the pendant went fairly well. I wanted it to seem that the pendant was alive and looking at the character. This can be seen from the first shot where the camera is placed behind it to give the viewer the viewpoint of the pendant. The other shots used are used the show what the character is feeling and thinking, below are a few of those shots. 

Moving on from this, the shots for the final part of the film were some of the most important to show that whoever uses the pendant is driven mad. This was done by using the same shots that were used for the old man except it is done with the main character. This makes it seem that the main character has reached the same fate as the original character and also disappears leaving the pendant to take another victim. Below are a few of these shots. 

  

Sixth day of filming

Soon after the last filming session, me and the main actor filmed the shots that bridge the gap between the character using the pendant accidentally for the first time and the montage of him using it to commit crimes. These shots would consist of mostly close up's and mid shots, some of which being high angle. These shots have to show that the character has realised the potential of this device. To do this, the close up will show his facial expression and he will then quickly change into a darker outfit to represent the dark actions he about to undertake. Below is a few shots of this session.

  

Fifth day filming

Earlier this week, I completed the shots needed to make up the montage of the character committing crimes using the pendant. The shot that was needed was a continuous long shot of the character rummaging through possessions within the house and then stealing a phone and a laptop, and he would do this whilst two people are sat right in front of him however they'll be frozen. This shot would then be cut down making the audience get the idea of what he is doing whilst making sure the shot does not stretch out for too long. This session was fairly quick however it did take a couple of takes due to interruptions during this thirty second shot. Below is a screen grab of this shot.